Mother's Day & more Metchosin

My Mom goes for a walk nearly every day. You can see my old truck on the right. I got back home yesterday, just in time to mow my lawn before the downpour today. Mon; 26c & sunny. Tues; 13c rained til about an hour ago.
Caught on camera.
Posing for camera! lol
back in Metchosin on the farm.
Wyatt is looking for sheep poop.
Beautiful weather for all of my stay in Metchosin.
Owen & Blair, son & father
Dusty was pretty happy to find his favorite toy lives on the farm.
Blair found his special toy too.

May in Metchosin Thurs.

After running the two packs of dogs this morning(MarCar 7 + Dorman 5), I left the gate into this field open to facilitate easier turn out of dogs later. The flock of 40 ewes and about 80 lambs discovered the open gate just before noon. As they say; the grass is always greener...
This is where we sit having coffee in the morning to watch the dogs run & play. Without sheep of course.
Happy flock chows down on the fresh green grass. Beautiful warm sunny day thank goodness as it makes caring for a dozen dogs much easier than rain & mud.
after an hour or two, some start to drift back through the gate but quickly rush back into the field as Blair & I come through the yard.
Blair stands in the gate the flock has gathered up as Blair waits to be sent.away to me Blair goes deep into the woods to get to balance.Where's Waldo?This is out of focus as I hurridly took this shot as the sheep went through the gate and back into 'their field'. But I thought the sharpness of the branch made it kinda cool pic. The branches hang low of this row of windbrake trees protect the kennels and yard from the infamous evening winds of Metchosin.Then Blair carefully pushes them down the field.And he waits so they can get through the gate without pushing.'That'ldo good boy" This is also the view from the kitchen window and back yard, looking south across the Juan de Fuca Straight to the Olympic Peninsula in WA.Blair, Jayne & Owen in their kennel runs where they are staying this week.And when I turn around this is where I am staying this week. Also, if anyone can tell me how to get rid of this stupid blue font and underline, I would appreciate it!

Springtime Showers

We are having a pretty typical spring here in the PacNorWest: warm and sunny followed by rain showers. Grass is growing like crazy. Tough to find a good day to mow the lawn when one wants to do fun things on the nice days. ;-)
Friday was Lynda's birthday so we celebrated by going out for Dim Sum. Her sister & a friend are here visiting from Ontario for a week so Lynda took the week off work. However she is now suffering from a bad cold. So she didn't make it out to Pam's big field today. Just Kristi & I weathered it out in a cool drizzle to work our dogs.
Yesterday I headed out to Abbotsford for the afternoon to take in the Flyball Tourney. The Kings did pretty well, especially considering that Margaret's Kane put a tooth through his lip and had to be pulled from competition. Rose's good old boy, Craig stepped in and took his place at the last minute. Plus there was a fire at the Stetson Bowl where all the club's equipment is kept so practice on Fri. was canceled which also meant late rushing around to find replacements was done. So the different box meant a few more fumbles than usual. But the dogs did their best as usual and fun was had by all.
I am probably heading over to Metchosin this week to help out Martha who is pretty sick from an infection which complicates her MS. Then I will go up to Pt.Alberni for the week end to spend Mother's Day with my Mom - for the last time she says. We are pragmatic, she & I, about that sort of stuff. So I tend to believe her - at 94, she is pretty knowledgeable about her health and gradual weakening, failing strength. While I know it is coming, it will be a different world for me, without her as my anchor. But such is life....and death.

Last week

This was actually a week ago Sunday. Beautiful day! Pam & her crew.
Lynda and Lark
Lark goes by us on her outrun.
Rose's young Lexy's first time working in the big field.
Owen on a flank or outrun.
Jayne driving. Notice I am watching the sheep not my dog. Starting to trust her more. First day for shorts & tshirt!
This past Tues. Maureen brought young Aero to work at McLeods'.
Aero got a visit from Rod's baby Flash.
Owen was NOT impressed with getting puppy kisses.

Thurs. at McLeods'

Jayne has to stay way off.
We had two gorgeous warm sunny days to work dogs. I skipped Tues. and went on Wed. instead to get in a visit with Maureen and her heelers. They worked pretty good for cattledogs! ;-) This picture is Owen from today actually getting to complete an outrun before the sheep moved. I had just brought out the whole working group and I guess they were hungry.
Owen fetching with a pretty decent pace. He is flanking to put them back on line.
Owen has turned around the post and is lining them out to drive.
Another flank to turn them to cross drive.
Jayne sits directly behind my chair while waiting for a turn. I have found that both Jayne & Owen can sit calmly outside the field while someone else is working a dog. Both of them were allowed to hang out ever since they were puppies. Much different than Blair who gets very agitated when another dog works sheep. So does Dusty but he has learned to watch more calmly with his head through the fence beside Jana.
Jayne driving.

Karen Child clinic at Fido's

Sorry no pix again. I was lazy.
Lynda & I headed south to Marroni's in Olympia on Friday to attend a 'trial tips & strategy' clinic. We stopped in Bellingham to pick up a few groceries to contribute to the usual feast fare at Jeff & Dee's, so got to their place about 3:30p. Pat Pederson was also arriving to stay there while at the clinic too so we had a great visit. Sat. nite in the hot tub was wonderful! Jeff cooked up the steaks we brought impeccably on the BBQ while Dee added crab stuffed mushrooms as an appy & grilled asperagus. Plus on Sunday, Jeff did chicken & ribs in his smoker for another awesome feast! Their hospitality is so over the top as to be hard to describe! Thank you thank you, my Border Collie family & friends!
We began with an hour or so of discussion in Chris' house but we had so many questions and it was so worthwhile that we stayed there til lunch. I told Karen later that if I learned nothing else all weekend, the new 'mantra' she gave me would be worth every penny. She talked about how trialing is very much a mental game; she said "Never give up" even when something goes very wrong - decide that the next element is going to be perfect. "No more points off" for the rest of the run. So if you see me post on FB or elsewhere: NGU/NMP you will know I am saying 'never give up/no more points'.
Then the clinic format was for each to run a trial course while Karen spoke to us on walkie talkies with tips and advice. Followed by a question/answer period right after. Pat & I went first with the only Open dogs, followed by Lynda with her P/N dog, Try. Then a couple Ranch dogs and the rest were Novice and/or never trialed to date. So we had a big range of experience but still lots to learn from everyone. I worked Blair first, then decided to try a P/N size run with Jayne. The sheep were held on grain and were very heavy so they tested Jayne's patience at the lift(meaning she bust in and gripped). I decided to run Owen on a P/N course on Sunday to see how he would handle it, which was a test but he did ok. Then Karen suggested that I exhaust some runs to allow him to build confidence picking up sheep at the pen/people/dog etc. I was extremely pleased with how he improved! He is so much like Dusty in that he settles and calms sheep, is a very good listener, will never get into trouble. He walked them up a short alley & thru the holding pen gate with confidence and patience. I think he will be ready for P/N trials before Jayne as going out a bigger distance is not as big an issue for him. It is obvious that the further away from me he is, his confidence gets shakey but...his cool head helps more so he gets the job done & will build upon each successful experience. Lynda ended up working her Nursery dog, Lark the rest of the weekend and got some great tips/experience on her.
I am very glad I finally got to work with Karen and will make sure to get down there more often when she is doing lessons. Every clinician I have been to has been excellent and it is interesting that while they have often said much the same thing, sometimes "we" can only hear it at certain times or after it has been said many times in slightly different ways. Karen is the first one that allowed/made me more aware of the mental side of it. Maybe because I am only now ready for that or......? Martha McHardy has always, right from the get-go, pushed me to 'step up' as a handler & encouraged me to push my limits but something Karen said, just clicked. Timing I guess. But I encourage any handlers that read my blog to go to a number of different clinicians: ones that have similar 'philosophies' but will be saying things just slightly differently.

Happy Easter!

Sorry no more pix.....Rose never did upload last week's working shots. ;-)
Not much new this week; I worked Blair & Owen on Tues because I felt like I needed a break to work my 'easy' dogs. Blair has started howling/barking in the topper half way down 248th. St. and then again as soon as I turn onto McLeods' 40th Ave! What a BAD dog!!! Owen yipes and howls on 40th but not as bad as Blair. I need to make a trip to Tisol to buy more 'stuff' for my bark collar obviously. Blair is also VERY bad at barking/seal sound when I even take another dog out of the truck, let alone work them! ;-(
So, needless to say, he got left at home today. Along with Dusty who is getting a lot of 'short shift' on sheep these days. It was a cold windy blustery showery day.....very cold even in the shelter of the 'McLeod Family Room aka garage'. At least until after Marg worked her first dog...then the sun came out and the rain stopped just in time for me to work Jayne. She had a good session. I sometimes feel at a loss for knowing what to work on after about 5 mins........(with all my dogs). It is the sad world my 'hobby' dogs face; no real work but just repetitive 'drills'. However I did feel with Owen today that he can move to bigger space(trial) without much effort. He is not at all grippy up there even when at a further distance than our comfort zone. With him, it will be a matter of him taking every flank command and quickly. Jayne is the better dog, but she will have issues at the top if the sheep don't lift before she gets there....and harder to get a hold of at a distance. Shall be interesting to see how both these youngsters do in some trials this year. I am looking forward to getting these two out on the trial field to see where the holes in my training are. It is so different than when I trialed Blair at the same age.....
I am going down to Arlington on Sat. for Heather's baby shower which may include some sheep time so at least they will get out on different s/f. Plus John Carter is having a 'Handy Dog' trial on Sunday out at Downriver which, if the weather is nice, will give them another different s/f experience. Plus next weekend is the Karen Child clinic at Fido's which I am really looking forward to.